Outdoor House for the RV : Tying it all Together

Earlier, Sheri and I wrote about our outdoor house idea where the RV is a central part of a much greener and much more integrated with the outdoors house.

In the next picture, we envision the house on a property with a loop shaped drive so we could carefully pull the RV into one end of the outdoor house. Probably the HARDEST thing about the outdoor house is orienting it thoughtfully so that the entertainment corner is located smartly to account for morning and evening sun.

In our prior posts, we've shown concepts for the kitchen, living room, bathroom, the kids area, the storage room, and our original post on the idea. You can click on those links to learn more.

When Sheri and I try to explain our RV Outdoor house, many people really have trouble imagining what we are talking about. In the picture below, we try to show, in a simple way, just using power point the idea. We want it to be fancier than what is shown, for example, we'd like to have roll-down doors and many half or 2/3 or 3/4 walls around the outdoor house. We'd also like evaporative coolers in the rafters, ceiling fans and many pleasantries like that.

Finally, to get a sense of what we're thinking for our RV outdoor house you have to think about what it might look like from a layout point of view. We were able to use power point again to help with the general idea and put in little pictures of couches and such found on the internet. We've found the 3D programs very, very hard AND time consuming to use so we will probably find an architect and give them our rough concepts and see if they can fix them up.

Please feel free to comment and critique, discuss, and help us make this even better.

Outdoor House : More on Outdoor bathroom

For our outdoor house that the RV will be an integral part, we keep coming back to the bathroom as one of the important pieces.

Here is a picture of a bathroom that really captures what we want. It is OPEN. We're completely sure you can do this in Texas and only a FEW days of the year the temperature is a problem.

Outdoor House : Childrens Rooms

When Sheri and I think of our RV ( recreational vehicle ) based outdoor house, we have to consider where our two children might sleep or have their own space.

One idea we had is that we could little teardrop campers and the kids could simply have their own space. They could decorate it anyway they want. How cool and how fun would that be!? I mean really, if I was a kid and I had my own little camper to sleep in that would be so super cool.

Here is a link to a typical little ultra light trailer. To save you from having to click on the link to see what we're talking about, I've added a picture.

We wouldn't need one with anything but a little clothes, sleeping, and studying space. They could use the bathroom in the house for bathing and other necessities.

And then when they grow up, they can either have the ultra lite or we could sell it.

Outdoor House : The Storage Room

When Sheri and I think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) and our outdoor house, we believe that in addition to a living room/great room, an outdoor bathroom, an outdoor kitchen concept, and the RV as the environmental protection area (sleeping, cooking, and living indoor for very inclimate weather), we believe that one room that is also needed is a utility room.


The utility room is the final piece that makes the outdoor home a true home base for our RV. Its less about the idea of an extra room than it is about having the things that you have in a full size home.


We believe the room should satisfy the following needs/uses :

• A Tornado safe room - probably cinder block and reinforced.
• Full size (or bigger) refrigerator and freezer.
• Full size washer and dryer.
• Dry goods storage (food, etc.)
• Storage for other things as well.
• Secure

I'm thinking the room would need to be about 400 square foot or larger. It would be wired for the appliances and be able to be secured. 

Who "out there" has an outdoor house / home base concept that has most of the elements I've been discussing?

Outdoor House : The Bathroom

When you think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) based outdoor house you may not think of having a bathroom that is part of the outdoor living space. But for Sheri and I, that is a key part of the plan. We think about how nice it would be to take long baths and be able to look out onto nature, or over city lights, and so on. Doesn't that sound nice?

Our goal is to have the commode, the shower, and a bath to be outside. We think about not having doors, but have walls placed such that you'd have privacy without doors. There would be walls which would provide privacy, but definitely not all the way up to the ceiling - no - just high enough for privacy without hurting the open feeling.

Here is a picture of an outdoor oriented bathroom that has some of the elements that we really like.

Outdoor House : The Living Room or Great Room

When Sheri and I think of our outdoor house with its environmentally protected zone ( the RV ) our minds gravitate towards a large room concept that has these elements BUILT-IN to the design.

• Comfortable seating where you can lay down, sit up, and it should feel nice and stay clean.
• Covered living.
• Cool-able via evaporative cooling
• Heat-able via large fireplace that is a focal point for the room, but at odd angles.
• Heat-able via those gas space heaters you see at restaurants
• Large attractive ceiling fans.
• A big screen TV hanging from the rafters.

Have you ever watched a movie outside? It is a great experience. Now imagine you can do it without worry from the elements, still be completely open, and imagine a fire in the fireplace. Now you're getting our vision!

Here is a picture of a wonderful room that captures so much of what we'd like to do. We can imagine a big screen built into the fireplace as well as hanging from the ceilings.

Outdoor House : The Kitchen

When you think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) and an outdoor house, realistically, it would be hard to cook inside if you have a great deal of people visiting - even more than for about 5 or 6 would be tough with three burners and a small oven.

So an integral part of our RV outdoor house would be to have a kitchen outside that serves for when we are entertaining, grilling, or just want to make sure that the smells, smokes, and bustle of cooking is not in the smaller RV but outside. That has other benefits like not raising the indoor temperature of the RV. Also, who wants to be inside cooking and be separated from the fun and conversation.

The RV manufacturers understand this. While they might be targeting tailgating, they are certainly designing RV's with outdoor kitchens. This fits so well with what Sheri and I think about outdoor house and the RV! Here is a link to just one RV design with the outdoor kitchen. (We are secretly partial to the big daddy toy haulers so we hope this trend takes off.). I'll put in a picture so you can see the kitchen without clicking.

There are many, many, many ideas we have (we cut out pictures from magazines and off the web) for living outdoors (under a roof of course) and having an outdoor house with an outdoor kitchen.

At the bottom of this short writeup, I'll attach a picture where the kitchen blends in so nicely, that you really have to look to find it. That's how we want to do it. Of course, we'll need some dry goods storage, but we'll touch on that later.

We want to here about YOUR outdoor house and outdoor kitchen ideas! So don't be shy about posting. Links are OK too!

Green RV - RV is more New Economy than you think

If you search on Google for "green RV", you'll find 100's of articles, such as this fine Peter Greenberg article.

You cannot doubt that innovation will continue around fuel efficiency, lower weight, better insulation, more efficient heating and cooling among other innovations.

Beyond energy efficiency, green RV's have the added advantage that you can dry-camp or boon dock longer, you can do more stops without hookups, you can get by with a smaller tow vehicle or engine, you can make less runs to buy LP. Green is actually a BETTER RV experience. So all the built in incentives have been in place from the beginning of time - regardless of your position on green today. In other words, RV users would prefer green due to the conveniences even if they didn't care about green!

But there are huge shifts in the American economy taking place that may forever change the relationships to RV's.

First, while I am not a full-timer, Sheri my wife, full-timed for two years in Puma. But it is my observation that the full-timers are WAY ahead of the rest of us for bunches of reasons you may have never considered.

1) Since when is living in a 1500 square foot house an entitlement? Prior to 1950 (approx) people lived in smaller houses. It seeems that around 1960 on to about now (2009/2010) the trend has been to get bigger houses. But do you really NEED that space. And now with mortgages being more difficult to get, and American employment less secure, the reality is that homes will be smaller. To a degree, the RV is the perfect small home and you can locate it anywhere you want! In general, living in less space and consuming less space should be the future trend.

2) Go where the jobs are! The idea of staying rooted just isn't what it used to be. For many reasons, people are more mobile than ever. Also, the American economy benefits when a free flow of labor can occur. Look at the problems in Michigan with the car company troubles. A more mobile attitude would allow those people to relocate much quicker. That relocation would get them jobs, and to the chagrin of some, lower wages in the areas with employent. But you know - we're going to have to get used to lower wages. They aren't the end of the world, just the end of too much greed. RV's are the most mobile of homes - sturdy, mobile and you can have fun vacationing, meeting new people, and visiting new areas.

3) Take your job with you. Related to #2, if you can use the network and the computer to make a living, why stay in one spot! RV's are a great place to live if you are a techie and don't have a lot of stuff.

4) American's wealth relative to other nations is coming more inline with reality. We had it great folks but really, we were an abnormality of sorts. Our wealth was unprecedented. I don't see a huge economic disaster with the Obama spending, because our economy - so far - has been good at fairly soft landings, but I think that when all the dust clears, we'll realize that we all will have to live with just a little bit less and have a more realistic attitude regarding our earning power, and consequently our ability to have 'things'. RV's are nice because if you have one and try to live in one, then you learn that 'stuff' isn't so important. RV's make sure that you carry with you, only the most necessary items.

5) If you think about an outdoor house concept, like Sheri and I are thinking, then that will use the RV as the environmentally tightly controlled living shell with a covered but open area that uses non-traditional methods of climate control for MOST of our living. Our goal is to spend most of our days outside! This should be the ultimate in living BIG while living GREEN (because the environmental control zone is small) and lowering the cost and environmental footprint of the home (because the materials are simple - avoiding insulation, avoiding synthetic flooring and more). RV's can and will be an INTEGRAL part of that concept, even if the the 'shell' won't be a true RV in the sense of the word.

These are some thoughts I have had about RV's and the new economy (green, less, and mobile). What do you think? Leave some comments that add to the discussion or give me pause to rethink things.

The Outdoor House

When Sheri and I discussed our future plans with the RV, we always have as part of our future the concept that we call an outdoor house.

Our idea is that we would live in the RV fulltime, but not even necessarily travel around that much. We assumed that our RV would form an environmentally protected shell for in-climate weather but that MOST of the time we would be living outside. We can accomplish this because while Texas is hot the heat is manageable by many many different methods. For cold weather, generally, most cold days are not too bad and we could use outdoor space heaters to utilize our outdoor area. But our thoughts were that for 7 out of 10 days, we could live outdoors. We would sleep in the RV. We would have a special room for washer and dryer and storage, but that would be the only 'sealed' area in the outdoor house other than the RV.

The picture I'm attaching shows the simplest form of an outdoor house. Notice that this RV is actually being used and lived in. Also, we would extend the roof at least 30-40 feet in one direction to create our living areas.

Post your comments on the outdoor house concept!